Talks fail to resolve Kawerau dispute

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 1

Talks fail to resolve Kawerau dispute

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington

The Kawerau dispute seems set to drag on indefinitely after talks in Wellington yesterday failed to make any progress. The president of the Federation of Labour, Mr Jim Knox, chaired the three-hour meeting which was attended on the employer side by Tasman’s managing director, Mr Garry Mace, its operations manager, Mr Graham Ogilvie, and its personnel manager, Mr Max Bish.

The union representatives were the acting secretary of the Pulp and Paper Workers’ Federation, Mr Harold Appleton, and members of his executive together with the boilermakers’ president, Mr John Findlay.

Mr Knox called the talks at the request of the

11 other unions on the site and asked Tasman to lift its lock-out as the first step towards achieving a settlement. This initiative was, however, rejected by the company, Mr Mace explaining later that while it might seem reasonable to Mr Knox, they had been down that path twice already and to go down it a third time would be ridiculous.

He said the federation’s “simple tactic" on past occasions had been to get back to work then frustrate negotiations. Mr Mace quoted the compulspry conference called last year at which an efficiency agreement was reached but which the union breached on the day it was signed by taking a 24-hour strike. He also quoted a similar incident three years ago.

These experiences have clearly convinced the company that, whatever the short-term costs, the federation must be brought to heel. This was spelt out by Mr Mace yesterday. “The mill will stay idle and stay closed until we can have a new attitude," he said. By that he means acceptance of Tasman’s six demands. They ate:

® That changes in manning patterns and operations may be introduced to meet changing work practices and requirements.

® That a skeleton crew be deputed to maintain continuity. of production

during stop-work meetings. •

© That the voluntary agreement between the federation and the company continue in force until replaced — a “protection” all other workers at the plant have. • That “hands on” training of other employees be accepted as a normal part of all jobs — a requirement all other workers accept. ® That a formal redundancy package be negotiated although the company “does not anticipate forced redundancies.”

© That there be immediate changes in manning with notice that other

changes will occur “in the months to come.” Mr Mace said Tasman would not back down on any of these conditions — they were “the bottom line.”

He also said he saw no hope that a resolution would be achieved before September 3 when the mill will be “mothballed” and the remainder of the workforce laid off.

Asked if the company was trying to starve the workers into submission, he said those locked out would get the dole and that there would be little advantage anyway in having them return to work just because they were hungry. “We would rather they

were well fed and up-to-date in their thinking,” he said. '

E qually, there would be “no development” for Tasman in having the membership do a deal which the leadership — the federation president, Mr John Murphy — would not accept. The company needed “a collective view to come through that the style must change.” '

The comment underlined the increasing perception that this latest dispute at Kawerau is, for Tasman, the final showdown with Mr Murphy. Mr Murphy, now in Britain visiting his sick father, is a unionist in the old class-war tradition.

The battle is about bringing him into line with what Mr Mace refers to as “modern economics.” More revealing is why it is being fought now —• Mr Mace says because Tasman has reached the end of the road economically.

“We have been struggling for two years to reach a point of common sense where" ~we " coiiltf make the plant more efficient, and we are running at a loss. To continue running as we are at present is just a slow death. We might as well have a sudden death as a slow one.”

But the timing of the September 3 shutdown, exactly two weeks before

the formal start of this year’s award negotiations, suggests it is intended as a pre-round softener, a show of strength inspired by Fletcher Challenge as the parent company. Mr Knox said yesterday he felt this was the motive because Tasman’s action had come "just at the right time.”

In this case the lockout, and the resolve with which Tasman is pursuing it, may be taken as an expression of the increasingly aggressive attitude New Zealand’s biggest employers are taking toward industrial relations — a push that is being coordinated and broadcast by their mouthpiece, the Business Round Table.